Ann Romney Criticized for Cancer Comment

August 2, 2007

By JENNIFER PARKER

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: A high-profile cancer patient is angry over comments Ann Romney made about the disease in an interview to People magazine.

Referencing her battle with multiple sclerosis, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney recalled, "It wasn't as though I was suicidal, but I was at the point where I thought, 'Couldn't I please just have cancer and die?'"

Some who have battled cancer took offense to Mrs. Romney's comments, responding that the disease is not one to be sought after.

Leroy Sievers, a former ABC News producer and journalist currently battling cancer, responded on his NPR blog, "I could be angry and say that a statement like that is thoughtless. I could try to be sympathetic and say that, just as I don't know a lot about MS, she obviously knows very little about cancer," he wrote, "I'm leaning toward 'angry' ... Cancer is not the lesser of evils. Cancer is the Bear, the Monster, the Murderer."

The Romney campaign defended Mrs. Romney's comment.

"Mrs. Romney was recounting a very real and very difficult emotional reaction to the news about her disease," Romney campaign spokesperson Carolyn Weyforth told ABC News.

"It's something that many people go through, and it's an honest reflection about a difficult period of her life. It's a reflection that has obviously evolved as she has come to terms with the disease."

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998, Mrs. Romney is currently symptom-free.